In the Shadows
by amalspach
Summary: Ever wondered what Poseidon meant when he talked about Percy having other siblings? Here's the background story of Audrey, a young demigod surviving without Camp Half Blood. Based on a friend's OC. Oneshot.


**Disclaimer: The world is Rick Riordan's.**

 **A friend of mine who wants to write a novel decided to try her hand at fanfiction. After reading the start of her story, I fell in love with the idea of one of her characters. I wanted to write a backstory for her to give the character more depth. So here we are! Most of her characters are OCs, so Rick doesn't own them.**

* * *

Audrey never thought that she was a normal girl. She always had the worst time making friends, always had an overactive imagination, always struggled behind the class when it came to reading. But she never imagined she was _different DNA_ strange.

Her first monster attacked her at 8 years old. Her parents (those betrayers) were picking up her baby brother from day care every day as opposed to waiting for her at the bus stop. It was in times like those that she really wondered if she belonged, or if they would be happier with her normal sibling. Nevertheless, it forced her to walk home by herself, while it was beginning to rain. With a huff of annoyance, the girl crossed her arms and began the trek.

As she rounded the corner and went down the street, Audrey saw something odd. In the middle of the road, there was a black labrador, and it was looking directly at her. With a frown, the little girl went closer.

"Are you lost, little guy?" she asked, bending down so she wouldn't frighten it. The creature that appeared to be a dog didn't move. It only licked its lips, and Audrey, even as a 8 year old, didn't know if she felt safe anymore. "I'm sorry, doggie, but I'm going home." She turned and started running the other direction as fast as possible, breathing hard, backpack bumping up and down. She didn't know why, but she knew something was wrong.

From behind her, the dog released a guttural howl, a sound so terrifying she nearly keeled over. The creature began to race after her, murder in its eyes, muscles rippling and shifting beneath the skin. The black fur became ashen, regular canines became enlarged, and the tail became longer and spiked. With a horrified wail from Audrey up ahead, the labrador was now a monster. And it was determined to kill.

To her credit, she was only 8 years old. There was no way she could've been able to outrun the creature (she later learned it was a hellhound) all 300ft to her house. The fact that she even made it back almost half the way was incredible, given her size, but she didn't stand a chance when the monster began to pounce. Soaring through the air and landing squarely on her shoulders, painfully pining her down, the creature barred its fangs and proceeded to attack her. Audrey didn't make things easy, though: she squirmed and thrashed her arms against the powerful forelegs, yanking and grabbing at the fur, before finally biting down on its paw. With a yowl, the leg momentarily came up, and she rolled out of the way.

She knew the same thing would likely happen if she tried to go back home again, so she had to take care of it then. Audrey grabbed her backpack strap and hit the creature over the head, hoping to knock it out. That clearly didn't work, and the monster whipped out its claws and sliced open the front pockets of her backpack when she tried to swing it again. It was becoming clear that even if she wanted to hurt this thing, nothing on hand would do the trick. Maybe she should have taken the opportunity to run after all.

 _I'm going to die without getting home_ , she thought as it nicked her leg and dragged her back under. _I didn't get to drive, or say goodbye, or make a single friend_. The creature now had her backed up between a neighbor's fence, which was already too high to jump over and too flat to find a grip on, and she knew she was utterly doomed. It was the end of the line, and she wasn't about to go out silent.

So Audrey screamed. She shrieked the most bloodcurdling, loud, terror inspiring scream of her short life. The monster winced slightly, but then he looked up. She was still screeching, the tug in her gut that she assumed was nervousness getting stronger with every second. But above them, the rain had stopped falling. The droplets hung in midair, frozen as if they were hanging from the sky by threads. They waited anxiously, as if wanting a command. The girl, realizing she wasn't dead quite yet, stopped screaming and opened her eyes. The instant she did, the water crashed onto the monster, crushing it with spiked drops and pure force. In seconds, it was done. The creature was flattened into oblivion and cast into a puddle of yellow flecks, like gold dust.

In a mute sort of shock, the young girl picked up her backpack slowly and resolved to run home as fast as possible. She had no idea what had happened, but she just wanted to feel abnormal again. Slightly out of tune with the other children, slightly out of place. Not this, whatever it had been. Now she was slightly estranged _and_ a freak of nature.

But she lived, she reflected hours later, as her mother examined her slit backpack with a look of suspicion. Unexpectedly, a feeling of pride rushed through the 8 year old. How many of those kids at school that danced around her could say that they had survived through all of _that_? Put that way, it almost sounded . . . special.

She wasn't a freak. She was just special, and they weren't, and that's why she couldn't make friends.

With that in her mind, Audrey got up from her place on the couch and hugged her mother, causing her to stop fiddling with the pocket.

Special indeed.

* * *

Her neighbor, Ms. Stevenson, was an elderly old woman down the block that lived by herself. She was tough as nails and quick as a whip, despite her age of 87, and she had taken a shining to Audrey when she had moved in. The girl had clearly been different, and she looked like she needed someone, so the woman had decided to step up. Heaven knew Audrey would need it. That's why it was no surprise when, a week later, the girl came to Ms. Stevenson's porch.

"Ms. Stevenson, something came after me. I thought it was a dog, but it wasn't. It was evil," she told her bluntly, which seems to be the characteristic of every child. They call things as they are.

"I imagine that it did," nodded her companion, eyes full of remembrance. "I knew you were one the minute you came - I'm surprised it waited so long to attack, actually."

"So you believe me?"

"Why wouldn't I? You're a terrible liar, you know," clucked Ms. Stevenson. "My cat would have better luck misleading me, my dear." Audrey's face fell and she scuffed at the ground with her toes.

"Mommy didn't believe me."

"It's hard for her to understand and believe, is all," she explained to the child. "Grown ups can be like that, dear. It's just the way they are."

"Is it because I'm special?" the 8 year old blurted out. "Did the thing come after me because I'm special?" With a sigh, Ms. Stevenson got up out of her porch chair and opened the front door.

"Come along, child. I've got quite a lot to show you." She dragged the young girl up through her house, taking her into the very top. Within a closed box in the attic, the woman pulled out a gleaming golden necklace and a worn mythology book. "These were two things I used when I was your age. Always wear the necklace, dear, just to be safe. It's made from something called celestial bronze, and the thought of it alone will make them weary. They'll leave you alone a little more." Dutifully, Audrey grabbed the necklace and put it on, feeling stronger, somehow. "It's also a weapon, my dear. You see the charm on the chain? It's enchanted."

"With magic?"

"Yes, with magic," she laughed. "But good magic. When you need protection, think of a tool, a weapon to use. It will turn into a dagger so you can destroy the monsters. Understood?" The young girl nodded. "Good. Now, the book is normal. It's human made, but it's a reference guide for the things that attacked you. You need to read about the myths in this book, child - they are real, and this will tell you how to keep sending them away." Ms. Stevenson leaned in, her nose almost touching Audrey's. "You're a half blood, Audrey. One of your parents was a god or goddess."

"A god?" she asked, screwing up her nose. "My daddy is a health inspector."

"Yes, but is he you biological dad, sweetheart? I doubt it was your mom - you look just like her. An almost carbon copy, actually."

"My daddy is my daddy, I think," Audrey asserted, hefting up her book and her necklace. "He's my father."

"Maybe," Ms. Stevenson replied, seeming less than convinced. "You better run along now, dear; your mother is probably wondering where you are."

"Before I leave, I just wanted to ask you about something, ma'am," said the little girl. "About earlier."

"Yes?"

"Are you special, too?" Ms. Stevenson paused, considering the question.

" . . . yes. Once, yes." And like that, the girl nodded and left, running out the door and back home. She had a long life ahead of her.

* * *

On the eve of her second battle at age 10, she didn't forget the things elderly Ms. Stevenson had told her. She wore the necklace everywhere, fingering the strange metal charm. She, despite being behind her group when reading, began to read the mythology textbook every second of the day, and soon became an avid reader of most anything despite her dyslexia. Her grades began to get better and her writing was greatly improved. Those 10 minutes in the attic really impacted her for the better, it seemed.

But she still wasn't normal. She was half godling, if that was true, and Audrey had a different dad. At 8 it had seemed so hard to believe that her daddy could be anything other than her father, but she supposed that there were little things. The way her brother Liam shared his eyes and his smile, but she didn't. His easygoing way with people was lost on her. His love of pretzels definitely wasn't inherited.

It didn't matter, though, in the end. Because he was there, and her real dad wasn't, so he was her daddy, no matter who her father was. The man at home still loved her like a daughter, and that was what counted.

In the schoolyard, after everybody else had left, Ms. Barnes, the school counselor, went up to her. Though she was acting perfectly normal, just watching Audrey sit on the swings, she couldn't shake the initial feeling that something was wrong. Audrey starred at the woman's eyes as she talked to her about behavioral problems in class. She was yammering on about school safety rules and how Audrey wasn't following them, but the girl didn't pay them any attention. She continued to look at her eyes, searching for a sign that this wasn't the real Ms. Barnes, something to confirm that the nagging feeling in her stomach wasn't just a trick of the mind.

There. Her eyes shifted. They hadn't ever blinked, but there was a definite shift in them that she couldn't quite explain. This couldn't be Ms. Barnes. Something about those eyes weren't quite . . . human.

Summoning her knife, Audrey held the celestial bronze hilt in her unpracticed hand for the first time. "You don't fool me," she told the figure warningly. "I'm not going to let you hurt me." The monster grinned widely, beginning to drop their disguise.

"Now, why would I do a thing like that?" it cackled, shedding the body of Ms. Barnes for one of its own. "You've been a bad little demigod, Audrey, and you're about to be punished."

It was the 10 year old that did the punishing, however, when she rammed the knife through her fake teacher's gut minutes later, dissolving her into a shower of sparks.

"So, the knife works," she told herself, cleaning the blade on the swing set bar. "I guess I should practice some more."

* * *

At 12, she was getting attacked almost every 2 weeks. Most days, she escaped with nothing more than a couple scratches, but today was different. She had a thick and jagged cut going all the way up her arm, and it hurt like there was no tomorrow.

Of course, she couldn't go to her parents. They didn't know she was a demigod, much less that she was constantly hunted. To some extent, even though she was tired of carrying the weight around, she didn't want them to ever figure out her secret. They would be thrust into a world of monsters and gods and the underworld. They would be thrust straight into her world of angels and demons, and it would be impossible for them to ever sleep at night again. As it was, the dreams alone could keep her up for hours. They were so vivid, so exact, that she woke up sweating some nights.

"Those are normal, dear," Ms. Stevenson assured her when she had first told her about them.

"Normal?" Audrey had snorted in response. "Normal took a hike when I was 8 and never came back." Ms. Stevenson had laughed, patted her cheek, and told her that she had 'spirit'. Whatever that meant.

So now her arm was slowly bleeding out, and as per usual, nobody could see through the mist well enough to help her, and those who could probably wanted to kill her. Ah, the carefree life of a lone demigod was _great_.

But either way, she had to get back home, and taking the bus was the quickest option. She bought a ticket and began shoving her way through the crowd to Suddenly, as she was pushing through the crowd of people, a random boy grabbed her from behind and pulled her into an open supply closet in the station. Instantly Audrey kneed him in the groin and held out her recently materialized knife.

"If you're another monster, you better keep your distance," she snarled, despite the throbbing of her arm. Scarlet blood dripped down the front of her shirt. _Damn it, that's going to take forever and a day to come out_ , she internally groaned. This demigod business was becoming expensive - she wasn't a disposable wallet. Seriously, this would be the third time in the last two months that she had to buy replacement clothes to hide the rips and stains her wardrobe was undergoing.

"I'm not a monster," called out the boy nervously from the back of the dark supply closet. He sounded in pain, which made her feel far more smug than it should have. Serves him right for sneaking up on her. "I was looking for my demigod and - "

"Your demigod?" she asked, shoving him into the wall again. Her strength and ability with a knife had certainly improved since her first attack. Silently she prayed to whatever gods out there who were listening for making her take karate in the 6th grade. "What do you mean, 'your demigod'? There are more around here?" He made a gagging sound and she realized she was strangling him. Slightly blushing, she removed a hand from his throat. "Sorry about that."

"Yeah, the demigod I was watching. We seekers scout for demigods around the world and take them to Camp Half Blood. It's a place for demigods to be safe and learn how to use their powers to survive. No monsters can get in. That's why I need to find him. He's around 12, and that means that his senses are going to be awakened and the creatures are going to come at him a lot heavier than before," he explained, looking uncomfortable in the dark room and under Audrey's watchful gaze. "That's a bad explanation, I know, but you've probably heard it all before. You've probably been through a summer or two there, since you look about that age and have a weapon." Audrey shook her head.

"I've never heard of it before in my life. I taught myself how to fight, actually, after a monster showed up when I was 8. I don't know of any powers. I just try to kill them, get back home alive, patch myself up, and go to school and get straight As. I never figured anything else was out there." She bit her lip, looking at the seeker curiously. "No monsters can get in? They can't come after me 24/7?" His eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

"You mean you've been protecting yourself since you were _8_ and nobody helped you?! You trained _yourself_?!" he bleated. She shrugged.

"Yeah, and?"

"That should be impossible! YOU should be impossible! I mean, I saw your cut and thought 'hey, maybe she ran out of ambrosia or something', but surviving attacks as early as 8 is nearly unheard of! Come to think of it, you smell weird. If they've been trailing you since that early on, you've got to have some heck of an aura. But I've never smelled anything like it. Half blood, yeah, that's in there, but there's something weird. You're not a normal demigod. You can't be. You'd have to be - "

"I get it, I'm a freak among the freaks!" she snapped, scowling at the seeker. "That's more than enough. I just want to bandage myself up and go home. Is that all?" The seeker looked her up and down solemnly for a moment before nodding slowly.

"Ok."

"Ok, what?"

"You're coming with me." To say Audrey was surprised was an understatement.

"I don't even _know_ you! Besides, I thought you wanted to go look for your kid. I'm not going anywhere with you. I don't even know your name."

"It's - "

"I don't _want_ to know your name. I just want to - "

"Patch up your arm, go home, I get it," he finished. She relaxed a little.

"Yeah."

"Well, if you catch the next bus with me, your arm will be completely fixed and you can go home with a clean shirt," he assured her. When Audrey didn't say anything, he grabbed the good arm of the brown haired girl and hauled her onto the bus. "Come on, we'll be there shortly."

And so they went.

* * *

Camp Half Blood was nothing like how she expected it. It was warm and inviting, filled with strawberry fields and laughter and sunny days, despite the flaming archery arrows, dubious rock wall, and loud forge. The seeker (who was a satyr, as she learned when they got there) didn't stop to show her around like with other new campers. He led her directly to the Big House, ignoring everybody, and giving her over to the camp director without so much as a second glance.

Although she hadn't had the best introduction to him (hey, she was tired, angry, and wounded, cut her some slack for acting harshly), she had at least expected him to introduce her to some people before stranding her without even a name. A name she refused to take, but whatever. It was still rude.

Chiron, though, she liked. He reminded her of Ms. Stevenson, in some strange way, but she couldn't muster even an eyelash bat when he revealed himself to be a centaur. Go figure, really, with the way her life was going.

"So, you're a self sufficient demigod," he began bluntly. After a pause, she looked up at him.

"Yes, I am. My neighbor was a half blood, and she told me that I was one too after my first attack. She gave me a weapon, but I taught myself. That's not the fantastic origin story you were expecting, but there it is," Audrey informed him, looking longingly at a chair next to her. "Can I sit down now? I'm tired and my arm's still injured, so . . ."

"Of course," he grinned, clearly stiffing laughter. "You're a funny one, aren't you?" She shrugged.

"You call it funny, I call it isolated and socially awkward. It's the life of a solitary half blood - who knows, maybe we're both wrong," she deadpanned. This time, the bearded man let out a full laugh, and she couldn't help but crack a smile back. She genuinely enjoyed being around people, she just never got close enough to them. She figured she was too abnormal and had too much drama in her life for people to accept her, so what was the point?

It was moments like these where she wished she could make more people laugh like that.

"Never lose your wit and sarcasm, child. They are things so few people possess, sadly," he told her, beginning to recover. "Now, about your arm."

"Yup, it's still bloody and slowly turning my clothes red."

"Yes, yes it is. Drink this," he informed her, holding out a cup filled with golden liquid. It looked suspiciously like the golden remains of her otherworldly victims, making her hesitant to down it at first. With a tiny sip, she tasted a liquefied slice of chocolate cake, and she drunk it all in under a minute. "Just wait a minute. That should do the trick." With a frown of confusion, she stared down at her limb. Slowly, the cut sealed itself, the blood from her shirt flowing back into it.

"Woah!" she cried, astonished. "What just happened?"

"That's the power of ambrosia and nectar, the food and drink of the gods. It heals demigods just as it heals and nurtures them," he explained simply, grabbing a ziploc bag off of the table. Being in the dining room allowed for almost complete privacy, something she was grateful for. Audrey didn't mind crowds and could talk to people well enough, but something about this informal introduction seemed almost sacred. "Here's a bag of ambrosia. You can use it like the nectar to heal yourself, but please do it in small spurts. The last thing you need, considering the life you lead, is to explode from too much godly food."

"Wait, that can happen?!"

"Don't worry, it rarely ever does," Chiron said casually, waving off her concern. "That would be problematic, wouldn't it?"

"Just a little," she admitted (again, sarcasm), nursing her newly fixed appendage.

"I'm very curious about you," he mused, scanning her with interest.

"What about me?"

"Who your parent is. I have a guess - you really do have an air about you, you see - but again, it's just a guess. Tell me, has anything beyond the usual demigod strangeness happened?" Chiron questioned. He said the words casually enough, but the raw curiosity he had couldn't be masked. Nor could the impending sense of doom, come to think of it.

"Not really. Not since the first fight, actually, but it wasn't much of one. I only had a backpack, a good set of lungs, and some rain." She scrunched her nose up then. "You know, it was weird. Not normal weird - "

"Normal weird is a place you become familiar with after a while, sadly."

" - but _weird_ weird. The water . . . it just sorta _froze_ in midair, and then it killed the monster," she finished. His brows arched skywards.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. And then it was done." Audrey glanced at Chiron, who was looking deathly pale. "What? Was it something I said?"

"You're . . . you can't be . . . he's already . . . " he murmured in distress. She got up and grabbed the centaur's hands.

"What's going on?" she pleaded with him, confused about what was happening and scared for the first time since she entered camp and just wanting things to go backwards to when the world made sense. It was overwhelming and stupid, but she was so _done_ with having to deal with everything by herself. "Chiron? What's going on?"

"Percy Jackson, one of our campers, is a son of Poseidon."

"So?"

"Poseidon isn't supposed to sire children," he muttered, saying it mostly to himself. Then, as if remembering she was there, he looked up. "And you must be one, too." The weight of this started to crash down.

"I'm not supposed to exist?" she whispered, and this officially became worse than the first revelation. It was worse than knowing the man she was raised with, the man who had taught her how to ride a bike, drove her to swim lessons, attended all of her choir concerts, and got up at 11pm to mock crappy TV shows when she was feeling bad, wasn't her dad. It was worse because on top of being a freak among freaks, she was a complete mistake. No wonder she was so unlike any demigod the seeker had ever met. Audrey never should have existed in the first place.

"I'm afraid not, my dear," Chiron told her, frowning. It was almost embarrassing, sitting in front of him while she began to cry, knowing that he actually pitied for her.

"So I'm a mistake," she repeated miserably. He sighed, patting her head with concern.

"Percy Jackson is a mistake, too, and he's arguably one of the best campers here. If you're a mistake, I'm sure you're a great one." The words were meant to be consoling, but all she could think about was that she wasn't going to cry anymore. To some extent, she took it to heart. She could be great. But she was a great mistake, and she was going to become the best mistake ever.

Moments later, Audrey honestly didn't know why the urge to tear up had been so bad. It wasn't anything she didn't already know, based on the fact that her mother clearly believed she was her dad's child. But now she had a purpose in crying, and that was to get everything out so she could feel better later.

And hey, at least she got untapped power from the exchange. Not exactly a win-win, but there was some good in it, she supposed.

"Ok," she finally told him, because she was all emptied out and there was nothing more to say. "But I'm not camping here. It sounds like you all have enough on your hands, and I don't want to get caught up in it. I'm not ready to join you all." What she really didn't say was 'I know I'm not ready for him to claim me'. She got up off the chair, holding out her hand. "I look forward to going here in the future."

"The recent future?"

"We'll see," she told him, lips pursed. "I want to practice any control over water in my free time. I don't know how long that'll take." He took in a deep breath, as if debating whether or not to let this strange and solitary girl go. At last, he exhaled and shook her hand, placing a business card inside.

"Contact us if you ever need anything - more supplies, for example. I don't see you skirting any corners when it comes to fighting."

"I don't, either." The teenager stuffed the ambrosia into her school bag (that thing was durable as hell - it lasted over 3 school years of monster battles, which was nothing short of miraculous) and it over her shoulders. As she walked away, all she could think was: _I'm five hours late . . . Mom is going to_ kill _me._

* * *

She felt her resolve to master her powers and mature before going to Camp Half Blood weaken during the next year. As Percy's prophecy progressed, the increase of monster attacks in New York increased tenfold. Already she had gone to restock her medicine hoard twice in the last month - it was borderline insane.

She wanted to be ready. She wanted to go when the time was right for her to fully immerse herself in the world of a demigod. But damn, was it tempting to just go in and say 'teach meh'.

When her dad announced that they are all moving to Colorado for his work, she doesn't know what surprised her more - the disappointment or the odd relief.

* * *

This move is the chance to reinvent herself, the chance to become a completely different person. So what does Audrey do?

. . . The exact same things as before.

She joins a choir, but she doesn't feel like any of the people are really her friends yet. It's understandable, since it's the start of the year, but she's not really connected to anybody yet and it feels so strange. She starts getting good grades, which is really a projection of what's to come. She's always gotten good grades, besides the occasional bad test, and this wasn't going to be any different. She fights monsters constantly, which was kind of a given.

But now, things are different. Her house is new, her school is new, and her powers are newly discovered. Like everybody else, she never tried controlling water with her mind. It's crazy, after all. But now . . . well, there's a first time for everything.

One afternoon, Audrey took a glass of water downstairs. She looked at it, willed it with her mind to do _something_ , anything at all. For the first few painful seconds, it doesn't. And then, just as she's about to slap herself for thinking it could work, there it is. That tug in her gut that she always assumed was just a raw feeling, like a back door conscience. It heightens her senses, and suddenly a door has been opened and she can do things. She wills it to do something simple - to float out of the cup slowly, and the water obeys. Then it proceeds to smacking her in the face when she wills it to come, but she can't help but grin anyways.

Audrey isn't weak. She's not a freak. She's special, just like she always was, and just like Ms. Stevenson always agreed she had to be. She's just special, and other people who are special have the ability to be extraordinary, so why can't she?

She'll find a way to control it. She can feel it.

* * *

. . . Yeah, saying that she can control it and actually controlling her powers is a completely different thing, she soon learns. Audrey can't even be mad, though because she finally feels as though she's accomplishing something with her abilities. She finally feels safe because of her powers, even though the monsters are coming around faster than ever before. It's alright, because she's not so alone.

Maybe it's time to actually try making friends, instead.

* * *

Emily is the first friend she makes.

Emily is friendly, sweeter than spun sugar, and loves absolutely everything. It isn't hard to love Emily the way she does with everybody - although the teenager only counts a select group of people her friends, she's unconditionally nice and giving to everyone she meets, judgement forever put aside. There's just something so undeniably _warm_ about her whole personality that's so inviting, and it's a shame that fewer peers try to get to know her.

Coincidentally, they get seated next to eachother in choir, which only strengthens their bond. Despite her 'shy' (it's just called being socially awkward, people, not 'shy' - shy people don't take down fully grown cyclopes by the age of 11, so shy is far beyond their vocabulary at that point) disposition in class, it's easier than Audrey thought to get settled. Cracking corny jokes in class to make her laugh, dropping her usual sarcastic comments about their music choices - it's so natural, it's frightening.

And Emily's friends are nothing but welcoming. She's known most of the members of her friend group since kindergarten, and as a result, the majority are boys. Like Audrey, they seemed to have picked up on Em's inexplicable goodness and have strived to keep her around. Of course, as middle school boys, they're stupid, talk with their mouths full, and make a variety of sexist, racist, and sexual jokes. It's to be expected, especially from Kaleb, one of Emily's oldest friends.

"I don't know what she saw in me," he told her one day at lunch when everybody else, including Emily, had left temporarily. "She kinda became my friend spontaneously. Back then, I just became friends with whoever said hi to me. But she was one of the first, and she hasn't left yet." During the story, she had listened before shoving him, making a comeback to whatever offensive slur had just been jokingly made (yeah, comebacks were something she was being forced to get better at), and stolen his phone in retaliation. Stealing his phone in front of Emily was the best, because she would giggle from her chair uncontrollably, usually laughing more at Kaleb's face than anything else. But, if nothing else, that simple story proved that there was a human beneath the cussing and fake come-ons.

It also proved that everybody felt like the worst person ever when compared to Emily, even her lifelong friends, but they felt terrible in the best way, if such a thing was possible.

In short, by the end of the year, it was well established that Emily was a great friend and nothing else compared. Maybe it was the new effort or the new school or something, but apparently being special didn't mean you couldn't have friends.

* * *

By the time they all reach high school together, their little bubble is still a unified group. They still sit together in choir, they still sit as a huge mass at lunch, they still crack terrible jokes in hopes to make each other laugh. But now their little bubble has expanded, and she's not sure what to feel.

Lucy is another choir girl. She's confident, fearless, smart, and never afraid to tell you what she thinks. She's far too self assured, and even though she knows she's that as well, Audrey feels like she isn't any of those things when put next to her. The way Lucy acts is so different than anything she's ever seen and experienced, it's almost scary. It's unsettling. It's weird. It puts her off the edge, because she's not exactly sure what to think about it yet.

In the first week with Lucy in their choir trio, Audrey felt awkward and off beat, which is something that hadn't happened since before she moved and met Em. She had the strangest inexplicable feeling that Lucy was summing her up, and she didn't know if she had passed the examination yet or not.

In the second week, Audrey felt more normal around her. Lucy was a a completely different personality, but she was a completely different person, too. It made sense, actually, and Emily seemed to like her already. So she shrugged it off and began attempting to get to know her.

In the third week, having Lucy in the group was normal. She was loud at times, but anybody could be loud. She was confident, but that was just her personality. She was brave, and that was easily admired. And when Lucy nodded to Audrey and sat next to her at lunch the next day, she had the weirdest feeling that she had passed something.

After a month, they were all practically best friends, and like with Em, it was so instantaneous and natural that it felt like breathing. Maybe they could all be special together.

* * *

Another month passes and Zytaveon joins the group. He's an odd one, just like them, and it's almost expected when he joins their small circle of misfits. He, like Lucy, moved here at the beginning of the school year, and the fact that he's a boy who enjoys third hour choir doesn't exactly help his rep.

They're a quartet, and there is something strangely special about him that reminds her a lot of herself. Audrey can't shake the feeling that all three of her choir friends are different, that there is something oddly powerful about them lying just beneath the surface.

In the end, all she can say is that Veon is her friend, and despite her 'shy' mannerisms (yeah, she still has no idea where that timid imagery came from, but oh well), she would happily kick the ass of anybody who says that he's weird or emo or anything else. He's quickly become one of the gang as well, and she is more than willing to protect her friends.

* * *

A manticore attacks the high school in the months that follows, and for once, Audrey can't make an excuse and duck around the corner to fight it. It's there, in the parking lot after school, and her two friends have clearly seen it based by their expressions. Emily's is a look of horror, while Lucy's is something akin to rage. Audrey can't help but imagine that she's internally screaming, _How dare you inconvenience me! Dammit, now I'm going to be another 10 minutes late and get stuck in traffic!_ For a brief moment, nobody speaks.

"Not again," Emily finally whimpered. "I really didn't want it to happen again."

"Again?" Audrey asked, kind of confused, before shrugging. "It's going to have to wait, Em." She grasps her enchanted dagger, silently thanking her old neighbor for the instrument that saved her life so many times before. "Stay back. It's here for me. I'll take care of this."

"Actually, I think it's here for me," Emily replied desperately, tugging her backwards. "It's not normal, Audrey, you'll get hurt because of me! I'm so sorry it followed me and - "

"Actually," Lucy cut in, cracking her knuckles, "it might be here for all of us. Can you guys fight?"

"Yeah, of course," Audrey answered immediately. Emily shrugged helplessly.

"More or less, honestly. I don't usually have to fight. Actually, I've seen the monsters less and less often since mid - " Emily froze, then turned to Audrey, face white. "Did you . . . around when you moved, they stopped coming. I thought they just lost interest. You got rid of them for me, didn't you?" For some reason, the accusation made her flush.

"Yeah, I kinda have a habit of doing that," she told her friend sheepishly. "Audrey: Monster Hunting since age 8. I'm kind of used to it."

"Cool," Lucy told them bluntly. "Now let's kill this thing so we can leave. I'm hungry, and the quicker we finish up, the quicker I can drive away and get some alfredo."

It takes them another 5 minutes to dispel the beast. Lucy's attacks are brutal and precise, however few they may be. Audrey keeps up, using the water from a bottle she constantly stores in her (incredibly durable) bag and her knife to supplement the attacks. Emily mainly provides tips and alerts them to any surprise tail swings or slashes on their blind sides, since she didn't have a blade on hand. All in all, they made a pretty good team, especially given their complete lack of group practice.

When they all admit that they're demigods, it's not exactly a surprise. Not even when Lucy slips in the small detail that her real name is Zyanya and Zytaveon is also special like them.

To be honest, as a half blood, you get used to surprises.

* * *

And now was the troublesome day. The day that spawned it all.

Really, it began the instant she rolled into choir. Audrey was a good singer - probably one of the best in her section, since she had decent tone and could actually carry a note and read the sheet music - and like any good little straight-As-except-for-in-spanish-god-help-me-I-hate-that-class-and-suck-at-it student, she started getting out her music immediately. She chats with Veon and Em, mocks one of their songs - 'Cuckoo', if we're going to name names - , and waits for Lucy to arrive.

And then, out of the blue, Veon has to leave for some mysterious reason when he hears there's trouble.

Huh. That doesn't sound familiar at all. _Seriously, cue eye roll._

Briefly, she wonders if she was ever that obvious with her flimsy excuses. Audrey shudders to think of the implications. There was no way she ever could have been that transparent.

But it's alright. She glances at Emily and Lucy, who just arrived moments after Veon left, and they all share a nod.

They're demigods. They're about to help their clueless friend defeat a hydra.

They're a team, and together, they're special as all get out.

* * *

 **I'm so sorry to take a break from my other stuff to write this! I promise you all that this was unintentional. Again, I just saw my friend's new fanfic (that already has over 13k in the first 2 days it's been up, damn, I wish I was that productive) and I couldn't help but write a oneshot. Mind you, it's become an over 7k oneshot written in the span of half a day, but yeah. It's clearly a rush job and it's not my best work, but I tried. Sue me.**

 **In the meantime, I really enjoyed doing this and I hope you enjoyed reading it as well. Again, I really loved the idea behind this character and wanted to do something to contribute to her new world. What I've done is now unofficial canon at this point, so hah, Uncle Rick. The power of OCs is beyond your control.**

 **She hasn't gotten as much attention from her story as I think she deserves for it yet. Granted, it's been 2 days, but still. It looks like it's going to be awesome _and_ she'll update regularly. I know her. She's like a military officer at the crack when it comes to her writing and due dates. So, in short, go visit her original story! Although this could be read as just an OC oneshot, it's probably a lot better when compared to her story. Her pen name it ** crystalheartzyx **and her story is called** The Shadows of A Heart. **Go search her up or follow the link:** s/12458254/1/The-Shadows-of-A-Heart 

**Bye, guys! See you in my next writing endeavor!**


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